I see names I recognize, but I've never played out any of the Sims in any way, except for Don and Kaylynn, whom I got married one time, after which he had a beautiful alien daughter at the same time as Kaylynn had his non-alien daughter. The two looked very much alike except for the obvious differences in skin tones and eyes. I loved that family, and lost them to a glitch about a year later. I never went back and played any of the other originals.

Chris Dennis, Mr. Chalmers and Mr. Cameron are "townies" made playable. Including townies ( and CAS Sims) spices up the gene pool. To avoid offspring that look too much like another I either go into CAS to create a child or two; cancel and go back to the game after having played "spin the pacifier" - or I use the 'bat box' to do this from within a household lot (after saving ).

Good ideas! I do the same kind of thing with the unplayed Sims in TS4. If I like the basics about one of those Sims, I also tweak him/her a bit in CaS, then rename them, which saves time over starting from scratch.